Dreams of Convenience
by Grav
Summary: When the Ancient database fails suddenly, the entire city is put to the test. COMPLETE
1. Teaser

AN: This story came out of a plot bunny while I was rewatching season one. In particular, "Hot Zone" and "The Brotherhood", because they all Work Together and Do Stuff. It was thisclose to being written as a "choose your own adventure", but then I chickened out because I couldn't think of any riddles.

The title comes from the ever-amazing Amy, who suggested it after I badgered her for about two weeks. It's a Freudian term (wait!) that means you dream about what you need. For example, when you dream about water and wake up thirsty. It will make sense later.

Disclaimer: These characters I do not own, nor premise, nor setting. I did, however, come up with the plot.

Spoilers: Er…nothing specific, but it kind of takes place in a Season Two style vibe, definitely pre-Michael.

Rating: PG

Summary: When the Ancient database fails suddenly, the entire city is put to the test.

------

"Dr. Sagh, I need those results ten minutes ago!" Rodney bellowed across the lab. Well, he liked to think of it as a bellow anyway. By this time of night and without his tenth cup of coffee, it was really more of an emphatic whine.

"Rodney, I have told you about a million times to call me Allison."

"I am trying to maintain a professional working relationship."

"This is because of my hair colour isn't it? Because I'm a blonde?" There was a great deal of mischief in Allison's eye. "You can't take me seriously. I should file a complaint!"

"You are an…a…competent scientist." Rodney stuttered, glaring around him at the not so stifled guffaws of the assemble science team. He drew himself up: "Where are my results, Allison?"

"They should be on your screen now, Rodney." Allison beamed.

"Oh…oh this is not good." Rodney mumbled within ten seconds of activating his screen.

"Why not?" Allison asked. "The power is flowing to the generator."

"Which is very nice. Except for the part where it is not flowing out." The surrounding scientists braced themselves for a tirade. "Do you have any idea what this means?"

"Yes, Rodney," Allison replied calmly, "I have helped rig a catastrophic overload before. But two days ago, we couldn't get the power to the generator, and now we can. One step at a time, Rodney."

"Oh. Right." Rodney sat down again, mollified. "One step at a time."

Allison grinned again as the storm blew itself out and the scientists resumed their work on various simulations and calculations.

"We might get this city flying after all."

"_Rodney_?" Zelenka's voice cut in. "_Rodney_!"

Rodney McKay sat straight up in bed, his heart pounding, and winced at the sun streaming in through the windows he had been too exhausted to close.

"_I'm sorry, Rodney_." Zelenka continued over the comms, "_It's been six hours_."

Mumbling about presumptuous Scots and apologetic Czechs, Rodney stumbled over to the sink and splashed his face with water. He struggled into his jacket and walked out into the hallway where Radek was waiting for him.

"Why didn't you just knock?"

"You are not the most pleasant person when you wake up."

"Good point. Is there coffee in the lab?" Zelenka shook his head. "Fabulous. I am going to the commissary. Go tell Simpson she'd better be done. I need those results ten minutes ago."

"Rodney we have other things that are most pressing at the – "

"One step at a time, Radek. We might get this city flying again after all."

------

Theme Song! TBC


	2. Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

_Seven Hours Earlier_

Rodney McKay loved the sound of his own voice. This fact was well known by most members of the Atlantis expedition. What was less well known was that Rodney also enjoyed forcing large groups of people to listen to his voice. This explained, though few people in the room were aware of it, the large number of people currently crammed into Rodney's lab for what was sure to be a very windy briefing.

John shifted his weight from foot to foot and wished, rather irrationally, that Teyla would move. She didn't, of course, and remained as unflappable as ever. Ronon at least had the good grace to fiddle with the pommel of the knife that stuck out from beneath his bent elbow. Across the room, Carson was speaking very quietly to Cadman, but the lieutenant's colour indicated that John was better off not knowing how they were passing the time.

Finally, Elizabeth came breezing into the lab and took her place in front of the projection monitor. She flashed John a small, completely unapologetic smile and then turned her attention to her excited science team.

"Are we all here then?" Rodney asked without looking up. He was a picture of innocence: lab-coat clad and tapping madly on his laptop.

"Yes, Rodney." John said sarcastically, "Would you like to explain why we're standing on top of one another in here instead of sitting comfortably in, I don't know…the briefing room?"

"What?" Rodney clearly had not been expecting an answer. "Oh, that. Well, the colonel's delicate constitution aside, we are down here because I have – " Zelenka coughed " – with some aid from my team, of course, managed to find and begin translating the Ancient Star Drive System."

There was dead silence in the lab. Rodney bounced on the balls of his feet and looked crestfallen. The corners of Teyla's mouth turned up ever so slightly.

"The Ancient Star Drive System," Rodney repeated slowly. "That turns our city into a really big, much faster, much more powerful version of the _Daedalus_. The part that makes our city fly."

"We know that, Rodney," Elizabeth said calmly.

"But we didn't know how to work it," Rodney said, bouncing on his feet again.

"We were concerned that the power requirements would be too large." Zelenka chimed in his usual placating tone, "But when we read the first section of the manual, we discovered that a series of naquadah generators could theoretically power the city…ship."

"We are so not calling it that," Rodney snapped. "Elizabeth, we can make the city fly. And we can do it with what we have. Nearly."

There was dead silence again, but this time, the atmosphere in the room was coiled as tightly as a spring.

"Show us the program, Rodney," Elizabeth said quietly.

"With pleasure." Rodney grinned almost maniacally and hit a few keys on his laptop.

There was a brief, well-mannered scuffle as people jostled for a better view of the screen. Someone stepped on Cadman's foot and she protested loudly, but then sharply cut off when Carson put his hand on her shoulder. She smirked at John, who rolled his eyes and looked back at the projector screen.

"As you can see," Rodney began as information began scrolling across the screen, "each naquadah generator would have to be strategically placed, and the back-ups would have to have tremendous capacity, but with a few tweaks….agh! – "

Rodney's voice cut off sharply as a brilliantly white light shone out from the screen. All around the room, people covered their eyes with their hands trying to blot out the light, but even through both of her hands, Elizabeth could still see it. And then it was gone, as abruptly as it had appeared, and the screen was blank.

"Rodney?" Elizabeth asked, sounding concerned.

"Oh, this is not good."

"Rodney!"

"This is not good!" Rodney's fingers were flying across his keyboard. "Radek get Simpson in here now. Everyone else get out."

"Rodney, what the hell is going on?" Elizabeth demanded, escalating to worried.

"The database…" Rodney was still frantically typing, "Radek, the database!"

Zelenka swore profusely in Czech, now typing furiously on his laptop as well. The two had a rapid, incomprehensible exchange of incomplete sentences and then Rodney looked around the still crowded room in consternation.

"Why are you all still here?"

"Because you haven't told us anything yet," John pointed out. "What is wrong with the database, McKay?"

The lights went out, plunging the room into darkness. Rodney sat back from his computer, a look of confused despair on his face. The back-up generators kicked in and the emergency lighting came on.

"Rodney?"

"It's gone. Everything is just….gone."

------

"What exactly did you mean by 'gone'?" John asked after the initial hubbub had died down and he'd cleared the room.

Since the lights had come back on, Elizabeth had been inundated with situation reports. John had simply put all his people on alert and dispatched Teyla and Ronon to oversee deployment, but Elizabeth was dealing with about a hundred pissed-off scientists. John didn't envy her the task.

"We must have triggered something in the database." Rodney sounded like he was about to cry. "We didn't do it last time we ran the program, but this time it just…deleted."

"Deleted!" John spoke a great deal louder than he had intended and there was a wave of worried silence.

"Actually, Colonel Sheppard, I do not believe it is that bad." Radek spoke up from across the room.

"What?" Rodney snapped back into action, "Give me that."

Radek knew enough to give up his ground, but kept up his explanation, "It appears to be deeply encrypted, Colonel."

"Can you decrypt it?" Elizabeth had finally removed her earpiece in an attempt to deal with more immediate problems.

"Of course we can," Rodney said waspishly.

"All right everybody stop!" Elizabeth commanded. All motion in the room stilled. "Radek, can you get me city-wide?"

"Yes, ma'am." Radek hit a few keys and then nodded.

"Attention everyone, this is Weir," Elizabeth began. "We have encountered a glitch in the computer system. From now until Colonel Sheppard and I deem otherwise, no one is to access any computer terminal without my authorization. All 'Gate travel is suspended and off-world teams will be redirected to the Alpha Site. Thank you, Weir out."

"Elizabeth, I need your – " Rodney began.

"No." Elizabeth cut him off. "What I need now is damage assessment. You were in here for almost twenty-four hours before you scheduled the briefing, and you had a mission before that. I am ordering you to sleep while Dr. Zelenka preps an initial report. We are going to need you later."

"As touching as that is, do you really think I can sleep now?"

"Carson!" John called, ignoring Rodney's protests. "Make him fall asleep. Six hours."

"Elizabeth, I – " Carson took Rodney by the shoulder and began to drag him from the room, "Radek! Make sure your scan includes that new binomial algorithm! And why the hell isn't Simpson here yet? And make sure you – "

The door slid shut behind him and Radek looked at Elizabeth with some measure of trepidation.

"Six hours, Radek," Elizabeth said, not without sympathy. "Let's make sure we have something when he wakes up."

------

Elizabeth Weir was exceptionally bright for an 18-year-old. She had enrolled in Biomedical Science at Brown University because she was going to be a doctor. That, she had been told by several uncles and a high school guidance counselor, was what smart, nice young women did, now that keeping a job after getting married was the social norm. She would help people and she would save lives and she hated anatomy.

For her graduation, Elizabeth's father was sending her to South Africa. She had wanted to go to Europe, but he remained adamant that she go somewhere different. Somewhere where she might see something unexpected. She thought he meant zebras or a maybe a Zulu tribesman, but as her train slowed on its way into Cape Town, she began to see that her father had meant something else altogether.

She had never seen anything like this before. She had read about it, of course, and seen pictures in books and on the news. She knew who Nelson Mandela was and what he had done…and the price he'd paid for it, but this…this was beyond anything she had experienced before.

The couple behind her drew their blinds across the window, but Elizabeth could not tear her eyes away. She took in as many details as she could: the broken glass and jagged metal, the boys playing soccer in the dirt, the dust and the sound of so many people in far too little space. Her brain was flying, attempting to process all that she saw as the train moved past.

And then she saw the girl.

"Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth snapped her head up and found she was in her office, in Atlantis, and that it was 19 years later. John stood at her door, smirking slightly, with a file in his hands.

"Sure we don't need Carson to send you to sleep too?"

"No, I'm fine." Elizabeth said mechanically, still caught up in her memory.

"Because you definitely look fine." John sat down in the chair across from her. "You look a little….not-fine."

"I had a dream," Elizabeth admitted. "It was something that happened a long time ago. I'd almost forgotten really, but the details were very…" She looked at him and shook her head to clear it, "What have you got, Colonel?"

"Simpson's preliminary report." John raised his eyebrows only slightly at her abrupt switch to formality. "She and Zelenka are done."

"Is Rodney awake yet?"

"Zelenka went to get him. Apparently Simpson turned up something more important than damage assessment."

"We'll do this in the lab then," Elizabeth said, getting up. "I am sure this won't be so entertaining that I'll want to do it twice."

John nodded and held his hand out for her to precede him across the walk-way to the eerily silent control room. The city wasn't making any noise any more, and Elizabeth found it strangely unnerving. As much as she had become accustomed to the ocean views and the constant smell of salt water, the hum of the city was omnipresent in daily operations. And now it was gone, replaced by the unsteady flickering whirr of the naquadah generators. The corridors and walls and doors were silent and every noise she and John made seemed like an unnecessary intrusion.

Elizabeth wondered what Halling would say, were he here. What he would tell them about how they had offended the Ancestors' Mighty City this time, what message they were trying to send. She didn't usually like to think like that; it always struck her as absurdly fatalistic. But she offered up a very quiet thought, _make our city whole again_, just in case.

------

TBC...


	3. Chapter Two

**CHAPTER 2**

The kitchen staff had fought a long, excruciating, somewhat uphill battle against Dr. McKay, trying to make him stop taking entire pots of coffee out of the commissary. It wasn't that they begrudged him the coffee; rather it was the pots they were concerned about. There had been an inexplicable shortage of coffee pots a while back and the marine team tasked with locating them had been most put out to discover several caches of mold-covered coffee pots in McKay's labs. The resolution of the war was quite simple and painfully direct: the more coffee pots in the commissary, the fewer lemon-based dishes on the menu. And vice versa.

Rodney didn't usually share his ill-gotten coffee with his co-workers. Dr. Simpson, however, had had a very trying six hours and circumvented him by having several mugs on the counter when he arrived, and not giving him any way to get out of sharing. He glowered slightly, but John and Elizabeth came in, with Teyla and Ronon behind them, and he didn't have time to complain.

"Dr. Weir, Colonel, everyone," Simpson began, bringing the room to attention. "I was able to find out what still has power. We have the basics: doors, the transporter, water, the Mess and the Infirmary. As far as I can tell, everything else, like the stasis chambers or the ZPM room for example, are still working, we just can't operate them. As far as computer use goes, we have limited resources. All of the Earth-based systems work, but the Ancient database is just…blank."

"Long range sensors? Defense? The 'Gate?" John interjected.

"I'm sorry Colonel," Simpson said with a shrug. "There's just nothing there."

"That is not entirely true," Zelenka cut in gently. "The database itself seems to have reverted to some kind of default setting. We can only see this screen, almost as though the database has gone on screensaver."

"Let's see it please, Radek," Elizabeth said, then hesitated. "Does the screen still work?"

"The screen will operate this far," said Zelenka as it came to life in front of them.

It was in Ancient, of course. Line after line of writing.

"Have you translated it?" Rodney asked peevishly.

"Yes," said Zelenka. "It is over here on the white board: 'Ekleth left home one morning on the planet Kethros and went for a walk. He saw his friend 500 metres to the south on his left and his enemy 500 metres to the south on his right. A pellig walked past him. What colour is it?'"

"What?" Rodney gaped at him.

"I did it twice, Rodney. And then Simpson double checked."

"But it doesn't make any sense!" Rodney protested.

"The pellig is yellow," Teyla said quietly. Everyone stared at her.

"She's right," Ronon agreed. "I've been to Kethros. It would be yellow."

"It's a riddle," Elizabeth said. "We have one like it on Earth. You know, the one that ends with 'What colour is the bear?' and it's 'white' because you're at the North Pole."

"The North Pole of Kethros is not covered with ice and snow like that of Earth," Teyla said. "Instead, it is a vast sandy desert."

"Type in the Ancient word for yellow," Rodney demanded.

Zelenka looked at Elizabeth, who nodded, and quickly hit a few keys. The image on the screen dissolved to black.

"What did you do this time?" Rodney pushed Zelenka out of the way and commandeered the laptop.

"Rodney, wait!" John said, for the screen was changing again.

More words in Ancient appeared. Rodney began to translate.

"It's numbers," he announced. "1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 33, 54…and then nothing."

"87," said John quickly. "Fibonacci Sequence. You add the last two numbers to get the next one.

Rodney hit the keys and the screen changed again.

"Physics," he reported and looked thoughtfully at Zelenka. "We are going to need some more coffee."

------

Two hours passed before they ran into a question that they couldn't answer. In that time, they worked through logic puzzles, math proofs, physics equations, chemical formulae and more Pegasus Galaxy history. It was almost like a party at times, laughing as Teyla described an obscure marriage ritual, taking bets on whether Rodney or Radek would solve the equation first, watching John do ridiculous mathematics in his head, but every time a riddle was solved, another one presented itself.

"This is medical," Rodney said, staring at the screen and looking absurdly defeated. "We're going to need Carson."

"Get him down here, then," Elizabeth said. "In the meantime, everyone take a break."

"Elizabeth – "

"You can stay Rodney," Elizabeth allowed, remembering that he'd already had his enforced rest period. "But remember to let the other children play too."

Rodney didn't deign to dignify that with an answer, choosing instead to page Carson while everyone else filed out of the room, some better than others at concealing their smirks.

------

Teyla stood beneath the trees, protected slightly by the overhanging branches, watching the horror unfold in front of her. The Wraith ships were everywhere, screeching overhead and sweeping up people in swathes as they tried to flee. There were also Wraith on the ground, which added to the panic. These were not their usual culling tactics. They must be desperately hungry.

There were screams all around her, shouts and yells and the sharp cries of children whose night terrors have suddenly come true. Alaran stood beside her, her dark eyes wide as they took in all the terror around them. The two women had been friends since childhood and Teyla always looked forward to trade missions where she would see her friend. But this time, the Wraith had come. And now the world was ending.

"We must help!" Alaran cried, for it was her village in flames, and started towards a young woman carrying a child as she stumbled across the field in front of the forest.

"We must survive," Teyla said, pulling her friend back into the meager shelter and hating the cold practicality in her own voice. "There is nothing we can do."

"Then we shall feed!" The voice from beside her was no longer her friend.

Teyla looked at her in shock, only to discover that Alaran was a Wraith Queen, white and terrible against the black night sky.

"Alaran, this is not what you are!" Teyla shouted, backing away. "You must fight this. You must resist!"

"We must feed!" Alaran insisted.

"No!" Teyla stumbled into a tree. Alaran surrounded her and there was no place left to run.

Teyla knew then the pain of living too fast. She screamed her defiance even as the life drained from her, taken before its time, leaving her a drying husk on a planet that wasn't even her own. She gasped for breath, determined not to die until absolutely necessary, and found her mouth was full of pillow.

She sat up, heart pounding, in her own bed safe in Atlantis. Irrationally, she threw the offending pillow across the room. She hadn't had Wraith dreams in months. What was happening that they should return now? When the long range sensors were off line?

"_Teyla, this is John. Are you there_?" her comm unit seemed very loud.

"Yes, Colonel," she replied automatically.

"_There's another Pegasus question. Could you come down_?"

"Yes Colonel," It was harder to believe in Wraith dreams when Atlantis was all around her. "I will be right there."

------

TBC...


	4. Chapter Three

AN: As I mentioned in the notes for chapter one, the harder riddles aren't written out in the story. This is because I lack the knowledge in physics and comparative harmonics to make them up in the first place. This isn't _The Da Vinci Code_, and the questions they are answering aren't easy...but if I say anymore I'll be giving things away.

**CHAPTER 3**

They had been arguing for hours. What began as a simple disagreement had escalated into a full-out battle of wills: John and Ronon on one side, Elizabeth and Carson on the other, with Rodney waffling between. Radek had long since retired to the corner, but Teyla remained in the centre of the room, resolutely silent, her face impassive.

Elizabeth made a particularly blistering argument and in the shocked silence that followed, Teyla finally played her hand.

"I do not believe either answer to be incorrect."

"What?" John demanded, recovering first. "Teyla, we can't both be – "

"It is clear, Colonel," she cut him off ruthlessly, but without raising her voice, "that both solutions will result in loss of life. Neither is less destructive than the other. What differs is only that which is destroyed."

"Teyla has a valid point." Radek spoke up nervously, reluctant to stick his head back in the lions' den. "What interests me is that this is not the first ethical dilemma we have faced. It is merely the first one we have disagreed upon."

Elizabeth looked speculatively at John.

"The man has a point," John said neutrally.

"Furthermore, and I apologize, but it took me some time to uncover, this has been the first question to be timed."

Rodney dashed over to Radek's monitor to see for himself. Carson cracked his neck, earning a black look from Ronon, while John looked sheepishly at Teyla. Elizabeth remained stationary, her face a study in thought.

"I think that there is more going on here than we realized," Elizabeth said, her voice very tightly controlled, as though she hadn't finished thinking about what she was going to say.

"What do you mean?" asked Rodney.

"We trip a failsafe close to an important system, and all of a sudden, the whole database is encrypted." Elizabeth's voice became more excited. "But it's not just encrypted. Rodney could break that in his sleep. It's more than a code."

"It's a test," Ronon said, his voice rumbling on the edge of anger.

"A test?" Rodney exclaimed. "Why would there be a test?"

"Perhaps to ensure that only a person of intelligence could have access the star drive?" Teyla guessed.

"No, it's more than that," Carson said thoughtfully. "It's combined intelligence. No one of us could have got this far alone. All of us have given answers. More than that, some answers needed two different people, with different backgrounds."

"But why would there be a test?" Rodney insisted.

"You're an Ancient," John said reasonably. "The Wraith are coming. There's a lot of them, and they are pretty smart. Do you want them running around the galaxy with an Ancient star drive?"

"No," Rodney admitted.

"That's why the questions are getting harder," Elizabeth said. "And why the ethical questions are cropping up. They want to know if we're…worthy."

"I don't like jumping through hoops," Ronon said.

"I'm not sure you have much choice," Rodney said condescendingly. "The city can't support itself forever on secondary generators. If we don't get primary power back online, we're going to have to evacuate."

It hung there for a moment. Elizabeth looked at John for a long time.

"Radek, get me city-wide." Radek hit a few keys and nodded. "Attention everyone, this is Dr. Weir. The Ancient database has been overwritten by a series of coded riddles. They will soon be displayed on every monitor in the city."

Rodney's look of consternation would have been amusing under other circumstances, but Elizabeth waved him to silence.

"It is our belief that this is some kind of test," Elizabeth continued, her voice echoing through the corridors. "So I am asking all of you to look at it. Work with people from outside your specialty. Create the best answers you can. This task was given to our city. I believe that, together, we can solve it. Weir out."

Rodney tried to say several things at once and produced only strangled noises.

"I will make the riddles appear on every screen," Radek said in a hushed tone. "I will also ensure that only those with top-level security clearance can actually input an answer."

"Thank you, Radek." Elizabeth said. She bit her lip. "And enter Ronon's answer to that last question.

Ronon looked surprised and Carson looked about to protest, but then thought the better of it.

"It's the best answer," Elizabeth acknowledged. "And we don't want to start this whole thing off with a city-wide debate."

"It was an impossible question," John said quietly. And peace was made.

"I suggest that we disperse ourselves throughout the city," Teyla said. "We have both the experience and the necessary codes."

"Good idea," Elizabeth said, all business again. "I'll be in my office. I want hourly reports from all department heads and notifications of each riddle, who solves it, and the answer as it happens."

Amidst the nods and verbal acquiescence, the room emptied. Throughout the city, darkened monitors came to life and the hum of people and their work filled the halls once more.

------

It was sunny and crisp, with just the slightest hint of wind. The clouds were white and fluffy and floated lazily in the sky. It was a perfect day. These were not unheard of to John Sheppard. He'd lived through a few of them, and he hoped to see many more. But today was the start of football season, his senior football season, and that made it special.

The game wasn't for hours, but John was on the field anyway. He just liked to look at it sometimes. He could focus and plan and dream and, for a while, life was as simple as football.

"I thought I might find you here," a voice said behind him.

For a moment, he was annoyed. This was his place today. But then he recognized the voice.

"Alia Phillips," he drawled, turning around. "What are you doing here?"

"Senior year." She shrugged.

It was maddening. They'd barely spoken in years and she could still read him like a book.

"Yeah. Senior year."

He walked over to where she was sitting on the bleachers and took the seat beside her. He had so many things to tell her and he didn't know where to begin.

"I'm sorry," he said finally.

"It happens, John," she replied. "You got popular and I didn't."

"I could've taken you with me."

"Yeah, I'd fit right in at your table." There was sarcasm, but no bitterness in her voice. She was happy.

He said nothing in reply because she was right. She was always right. Whether it was telling frogs from toads down in the creek or pointing out constellations from the hayloft long after the sun went down. She'd been his friend forever and he'd spent most of high school ignoring her.

"Dad said it's going to rain tonight." Adam Phillips did nothing without first consulting the Farmers' Almanac.

"It can't rain," John said without thinking.

"The world doesn't revolve around football, John."

He was a breath away from telling her that he wished it should before he remembered that she would see through him. She always did.

"I know," he said instead. Then hopefully: "You'll come tonight?"

"I never miss a game." She was smiling at him now. The smile he remembered from back before he knew that boys and girls were different and couldn't be 'that kind' of friends.

"You never miss anything."

She laughed and, up on the hill, the school bell rang. It became louder and more insistent and then John woke up to the sound of the alarms of Atlantis going berserk.

"Control room, this is Sheppard. Report."

"_Flooding in the lower south east pier_." Chuck's voice was beleaguered. "_Dr. Weir wants you up here ASAP_."

"I'm on my way."

Life was never as simple as football.

------

AN: You expect me to get through a whole fic without using the word "acquiesce"? Also, the background for John is lifted almost verbatim from the Shermer High AU.


	5. Chapter Four

**CHAPTER 4**

"I don't think this is a coincidence," Kate said, pulling her pajama top over her head. She sat down on the side of the bed.

"_Proc u vsech usudy ze ne obemknout lide kteri nemuzeme zastavit stroje_? Could I perhaps get some sleep?" Radek pretended annoyance, but looked at her affectionately.

She smiled and let him draw her into his arms. "You're really not curious at all?"

"_Muj drahy zenska_, you have blonde hair and the part of you that is not your legs is your brain. Do you think I think of anything while you are here?"

She giggled, very much aware of how red her face must be. He smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

"Talk to Elizabeth in the morning." He kissed her again and she didn't disagree.

------

Carson hadn't arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy equipped to deal with epidemics. He knew they existed, of course, and his limited experience at the SGC before traveling through the 'Gate had warned him that anything could happen, but there was something about standing in a room full of dying people that he wasn't prepared to accept. He dealt with life at its simplest, with DNA and genetics. He should be able to tweak something and fix this, but there was nothing he could do.

This disease was particularly nasty. It was a wasting disease that ate at muscle tissue and inflamed the nervous system. Those affected became weaker and weaker, and pain management became increasingly difficult. Their minds remained intact, completely aware of their failing, pain-wracked bodies.

Patient Zero was a young woman. Carson still didn't know how she'd been infected, but she was the farthest along and her prognosis was not good. He had moved her to a private room when her pain became unmanageable as much for her privacy as to keep the others from seeing her fate.

She was dying. Horribly and slowly, the life ripped out of her body like the slowest removal of the stickiest band-aid. And there was nothing he could do. She didn't scream or moan; she hadn't been able to speak since shortly after Carson and the med-team arrived. When the nurses moved her or attempted to change her clothing, she gasped at their light touches.

But she cried. Soundless tears streamed from her luminous, fully aware eyes. There was none of the peace found at the end of a person's life, that peace given finally at the end when it becomes inevitable. There was only pain as her body slowly ate itself to death.

And there was nothing he could do.

------

Elizabeth forced herself to stop looking at the screen. The latest riddle was based on theoretical physics and music, neither of which were her forte, but the puzzle was addictive and she was having trouble pulling herself away. She'd already instructed Carson to draw up schedules for people: there was more to do than puzzles and her people had a tendency to forget about things like food and sleep when they were busy. But still, it called.

She looked up and saw Kate Heightmeyer standing awkwardly in her doorway. She was used to that--the instinct to knock was hard to overcome--and waved the woman inside.

"Dr. Weir, are you busy?" Kate's measured voice was polite as always, even more so perhaps, as she was in an unfamiliar arena.

"Not at the moment – it's all numbers right now." Elizabeth made a face. "Sit down, please."

"I know you said you wanted reports from Department Heads, and Dr. Beckett is the head of my department, but I wanted to bring this directly to you first." Kate sat and interlaced her fingers nervously. This wasn't exactly protocol.

"All right. What have you got?" Hardly anything that happened on Atlantis was protocol.

"It's…you'll have to excuse me, Dr. Weir. I am stepping carefully around patient confidentiality to tell you this."

"I understand." Elizabeth nodded. "Take the time you need."

Kate took a deep breath: "People are having dreams. Strangely lucid, consistently repetitive, very unusual dreams."

Elizabeth sat forward, her face betraying no more than typical interest.

"Radek, Dr. Zelenka spoke about them first," Kate continued. She looked up sharply and backtracked, "He said I could tell you. We spoke in a…non-professional capacity."

"It's hard to keep secrets in this city," Elizabeth pointed out.

"True enough." Kate smiled and recovered. "I spoke with several others in session and currently, I have ten patients, plus Radek, who have had these dreams."

"Are they all the same?" Elizabeth asked. Her tone was starting to give her away.

"No. They are markedly different. I haven't had the time to go into detail yet, but so far I have found one commonality: they were all in the lab when that flash went off."

Elizabeth sat back, no longer even attempting to control her face.

"What are you dreaming, Elizabeth?"

"There's…a girl," Elizabeth began. The words started slowly, but then came with ease. "We're in Cape Town, the ghetto. My train is passing through, and I see her out the window."

"Why are you in Cape Town?"

"My father sent me. It was the summer after high school and he wanted me to see the world." Elizabeth smiled at the memory. "I was going to be a doctor. Everyone always told me that I was smart and I should be a doctor, so I was. But I saw her that day. I saw how she lived. How so many people lived."

"What did you do?"

"I got off the train and found a telephone. I called my dad and told him to phone Brown and tell them that I was switching into Political Science and that when I was done at Brown, I was going to save the world."

Elizabeth's computer beeped, jolting her out of her memory.

"A riddle's been solved," she said, looking down. "Dr. Selis, this time. I'm glad his mother made him stick out his piano lessons."

"I'll leave you to it," Kate said, standing up.

"Kate, a moment please," Elizabeth said. "You have something here. I want you to interview everyone who was in that room. Full details of their dreams. Everyone will then report to Dr. Beckett for a CAT scan. If this thing is in our heads, I want to know exactly where and how. Keep is as quiet as you can for now."

"Dr. Weir, I can't tell you anyone else's dream."

"I realize that," Elizabeth said, not unkindly. "What I hope is that you will see a pattern and determine the next step we need to take."

"Some of my patients are high profile," Kate said reluctantly. "I know they don't like talking to me."

"For this, you outrank every member of the expedition," Elizabeth said encouragingly, "even Rodney. I think this is your part of the Riddle, Dr. Heightmeyer, the part that only you can play."

Elizabeth's computer beeped again. The new question had been translated.

"Begin as soon as you can," Elizabeth ordered. "If you need anything, it's yours."

"Yes ma'am." Kate stood and left the office, brain still spinning at the unprecedented amount of authority and responsibility she had just been given.

Kate wasn't used to being at the centre of things on Atlantis. Her job was on the edge, away from the troubles and rampant catastrophes that her colleagues dealt with. This at least was something more familiar to her, but the scale on which she was expected to work was new and she wasn't entirely sure she could do it.

She looked back and saw Elizabeth focused on her laptop, already processing the newest problem. Kate didn't know what the riddle was, but she knew that someone on Atlantis would have the expertise to solve it. This was all about playing your strengths and asking for help when you needed it. Dr. Heightmeyer squared her shoulders and walked out of the Control Room, ready to take her place in the game.

------

TBC...

AN: Heightmeyer/Zelenka is just too much fun to pass up. And Czech turns out to be really cool! If, you know, terribly translated.


	6. Chapter Five

**CHAPTER 5**

John Sheppard suspected that his job would be a great deal easier if Atlantis didn't flood every time there was trouble with the computers. Being at sea fulfilled several mythic components of the Atlantis legend and meant that things generally smelled nice, but it was a pain a lot of the time. When he was on the mainland and thought no one was watching, John Sheppard had been known to do things like pet trees and watch the grass grow.

This particular flood had produced no lingering damage and had served the bonus of putting off his appointment with Heightmeyer for almost two hours. High school, particularly the end, was not John's favourite time to remember and this memory in particular was painful. He didn't like rehashing his failures, or things he considered his failures, even if it might mean saving the city.

"What happened after the game?" Heightmeyer had two voices and this one was kind of infuriating.

"We had a party. It was homecoming of senior year." This had been bad enough. He wasn't going to give her any more than she needed.

"Did Alia go with you?"

"No," John said. "She wasn't invited."

"Did it rain?"

"It poured." John knew he was going to have to tell her eventually. "It poured just like the almanac said it would. She was a good driver and that truck was dependable, but she slid…hydroplaned…and…that was the end."

"I'm sorry John." No one was a doctor here, and no one had rank. It made him feel a bit better.

"I could have – " John said and then stopped. He couldn't have. He'd always known that.

"I know, John."

John left the office feeling heavy and wishing the sun wasn't shining quite so brightly.

------

"I don't see how this is going to help you."

"Ronon…please just tell me what you're dreaming."

"It's my dream. It's none of your business."

"Please, Ronon. Just a little bit."

"I fight."

"The Wraith?"

"No…some girl. It's just training."

"Is she Satedan?"

"How could that possibly matter?"

"Just answer the question."

"She's not wearing a uniform and I don't recognize her. She could be from anywhere."

"And you only fight?"

Ronon glowered at her.

"Okay…you only fight."

------

Rodney always paced when he came to talk to Kate. She moved her chair specifically for his appointments so she could see him where ever he was in the room. He rampaged up and down her office like a drunken gazelle and ranted about the various neuroses that other people had that he dealt with effectively on his own and thus did not need her assessment of his character. She generally tried to book him the last appointment on Friday afternoons.

"I'm right on the edge of something big," Rodney said, fiddling with one of the puzzle sculptures on her desk. "I can feel it. It's major. A huge breakthrough. My dream might be the key to this whole thing."

"Do you ever get to the end of it?" The key with Rodney was to provoke him. If he thought she was asking stupid questions, he would talk her ear off.

"No!" Rodney set the puzzle down and moved to the window slats. "Someone always wakes me up."

"How far do you get before you get interrupted?"

"The Wraith attack." Rodney peered out the window and then ran his finger on the ledge, apparently checking for dust. "You really should clean these things."

"I'll have a word with my staff," Kate said sarcastically. "What happens when the Wraith attack?"

"Alarms, panic, explosions…the usual."

"And that's when you wake up."

"Yes. I am about to save the world, and then I wake up." Rodney moved back to the desk and picked up another puzzle.

"That must be very frustrating." Sometimes she just couldn't resist.

"Yes. I am so glad I could finally talk to someone who is qualified to point that out to me. I never would have figured that out by myself."

"Is there a woman in your dream who is not a member of the expedition?"

"How did you know that?" Rodney set the puzzle down and for the first time in her memory, gave her his full attention. It was mildly unsettling.

"Rodney – "

"Right." He paused. "Yes. Her name is Alison. She's…a scientist. She's the one who works with me."

Kate looked out the window for a moment, deep in thought. She looked back at Rodney, who was actually sitting in the chair where he was supposed to be.

"Thank you, Rodney," she said. "That's enough for now."

------

Kate sat on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands. Radek moved about the room setting things in order. He was compulsively neat and always tidied up before he went to bed. Apparently, he bought into that 'cluttered mind' thing Kate's mother had always tried to sell her. He chattered away to her, studiously avoiding any mention of dreams, about the various riddles from the day. Right in the middle of laughing about how blue jell-o might help them save the city, he realized that she wasn't listening and came to sit beside her.

"What is it?" he asked, putting his arm around her.

"There is just so much of it!" She was suddenly on the edge of tears and he pulled her into his arms, murmuring things she didn't understand in her ear.

"It's always like that." She felt his smile press against her head. "When Colonel Sheppard's team got stuck in the wormhole, I was so terrified. I couldn't go into the briefing with the others. I was afraid my words wouldn't get out and that they would shoot all my ideas down. I went straight to the jumper bay, not because I had an idea, but because I didn't want to face the others."

"But you worked it out. You always work it out."

"But never by myself." He pulled her face around so that she was looking at him. "Everything this galaxy has ever put in our path needed collaboration. Someone always gets an idea, but then someone else always works alongside to finish it."

"I'm not supposed to break confidentiality."

"You don't have to," Radek said. "What do you need?"

"I…need to know what links the dreams." Kate hesitated. "I know what links all the dreams; I just have to picture it somehow."

"Then find someone who can picture it. If I've learned anything in the past few days, it's that the people on this expedition have a wide variety of talents."

"I'm not used to being in the centre of things." Kate smiled a little. "I usually just mop up afterwards."

"Welcome to Atlantis, _muj drahy_."

"Will you teach me Czech?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because then I will no longer have my mysterious allure."

She giggled. And that was the end of that conversation.

------

"Dr. Weir?" Kate said from the door to Elizabeth's office.

"Yes?" Elizabeth looked up from the screen and then smiled. "Dr. Heightmeyer. Please, come in. Just give me a moment."

Kate took the seat across from Elizabeth and waited for Elizabeth to finish whatever riddle she was collaborating on.

"More language riddles. I hate puns in foreign languages." Elizabeth smiled and turned her full attention to Kate. "What can I do for you?"

"Do we have a composite sketch artist with us?" Kate asked with no preamble.

"You mean someone who draws faces from descriptions? Like at a police station?" Elizabeth confirmed.

"Yes," Kate said.

"I know we have some artists." Elizabeth said. "I'll ask around and see who will come forward."

"Thank you, Dr. Weir," Kate said. "I'll need to set up another round of appointments with all the dreamers too."

"I figured as much." Elizabeth smiled. "I knew you'd figure it out."

"I haven't figured it out, Dr. Weir," Kate said, also smiling. "But we will."

------

"Okay, that's just creepy."

The conference table was covered with sketches, one from every person who had been in the room when the flash went off. Kate had used three different artists just to be sure but the results were the same. Regardless of who described the girl from the dream or who drew the picture, there were thirty pieces of paper in front of her and all of them looked up at her with the same face.

"How is this even possible?"

"I'm not exactly sure, Dr. Weir," Kate said, looking away from the table in front of her to the laptop computer that held her results and observations. "I had a hunch, but…this is a surprise to me as well."

"This doesn't make any sense," John said.

"Yes, Colonel, we can see that," Rodney snapped.

"No, that's not what I meant," John added. "This is not…my friend. I mean it looks like the girl in my dream and the girl in my dream was Alia, but _that_ is not her."

"He's right," Elizabeth said suddenly. "My dream takes place in South Africa. The girl is black. I…I don't know why I never thought about it, but John's right. It's not her…but it is."

"Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Weir are correct," Teyla said. "This is very strange."

Ronon shuffled through several of the sketches but remained silent.

"That's why there was a flash!" said Rodney, snapping his fingers. "Radek said that the data wiped itself to a black screen and the flash came from somewhere else, but we haven't really had the time to look into it yet."

"I ran some brain scans on a few of the people who were in the room," Carson said. "Everyone is healthy, but I noticed some oddities in the CAT scans that I did. Usually when a person dreams, memory centres all across the brain are activated. Every scan I took has activity in the same place."

"How can we all be remembering the same thing?" Ronon asked.

"We aren't," Carson said. "It's not the memory itself; it's where the memory is located."

"Theoretically, the moral centres of the brain will always be located in the same place," Kate said quietly.

"Yes, and you could publish if you could come up with an explanation that didn't involve alien intervention," Rodney snarked. "How exactly does this help us?"

"Could it not be what the Ancestors intended?" Teyla asked

"What do you mean?" Kate replied.

"When we first encountered the ethical questions, we thought it might have been a failsafe to prevent an intelligent but malevolent race from accessing highly sophisticated technology. Could not the Wraith or perhaps even the Genii pretend to know the answers if faced only with a computer?"

"She has a point," John agreed.

"Would it not then follow that our dreams provide them with some further insight to our personalities?" Teyla asked.

"That's the hypothesis I was trying to prove," Kate admitted. "I don't have the slightest idea how they did it, but testing your subconscious minds might be the way you finally pass or fail this test."

Rodney's computer beeped loudly and everyone started.

"Uh…sorry. I have it set to go off when someone asks to submit a riddle-answer," Rodney apologized. "I've been monitoring this one myself, and it looks pretty good. I can't see any glaring errors in it in any case."

"Enter it," Elizabeth said.

Rodney tapped a few keys and then entered his security code and the code that would translate the answer into Ancient. Kate took the opportunity to fix a few of the spelling mistakes she'd made while typing her notes on the way to the briefing when suddenly, the screen went black.

"Rodney?" she exclaimed, instinctively pulling her hands back from the keyboard.

"I don't…It just."

"Not again," Ronon mumbled.

"Wait!" Zelenka said. "Something's happening."

White pixels appeared on every running computer in the city of Atlantis. They increased in number and moved faster across the screen, spinning randomly. Finally they began to take shape and resolved to a single Ancient word.

"Sleep," said Elizabeth, looking over Kate's shoulder. There were several moments of silence. "Looks like we have the last part of the test."

------

TBC...


	7. Chapter Six

**CHAPTER SIX**

They gathered in the infirmary.

Carson had requisitioned all the extra cots they had, kept in storage in case of a city-wide pandemic or triage scenario, and set them out in rows. They were cramped, placed close enough to one another that it was possible to reach out and touch the person in the next bed, but Elizabeth was reluctant to spread into other rooms. She didn't know what was about to happen, but she knew it was going to happen to her and a lot of her people, and she wanted them all to be together for it.

Kate walked up and down the centre aisle, left wide enough for the med team to get through if it were needed, offering advice and assurance to those who needed it. When Carson lay down on the last cot, Dr. Keller began to move from bed to bed, providing each potential dreamer with a fast-acting sleep aid and a cup of water. Kate stopped by Radek and took his hand. He squeezed her fingers and then released them to accept his own dose of the medication. He lay back and smiled and then began to drift off.

Carson was the last to take the pills. Kate understood his hesitation. Off all the dreams, his had been the hardest to work through. Their session had been heart-rending and Kate knew that Carson was doubting what the right choice would be in his case. Kate took Carson's dose from Dr. Keller and sat down on the foot of his cot.

"Remember that first ethics question?" she asked. "How you all argued for hours and then finally went with an option that only half of you agreed on?"

"I am not likely to forget any part of this experience," Carson said wryly.

"Just keep it in mind, Carson." She handed him his meds. "There may not be a right answer. Maybe they just want to know what your answer is."

He looked at her and smiled slightly. Then his face hardened with resolve and he swallowed the pills.

"Sleep well, Carson."

"Aye…sleep well indeed."

All through the room, Kate's team members and friends fell asleep until finally only she and Dr. Keller were left conscious. They exchanged a small smile of amusement at Rodney's prodigious snoring, and then settled in to wait.

------

Teyla stood beneath the trees, protected slightly by the overhanging branches, watching the horror unfold in front of her. The Wraith ships were everywhere, screeching overhead and sweeping up people in swathes as they tried to flee. There were also Wraith on the ground which added to the panic. These were not their usual culling tactics. They must be desperately hungry.

There were screams all around her, shouts and yells and the sharp cries of children whose night terrors have suddenly come true. Alaran stood beside her, her dark eyes wide as they took in all the terror around them. The two women had been friends since childhood and Teyla always looked forward to trade missions where she would see her friend. But this time, the Wraith had come. And now the world was ending.

"We must help!" Alaran cried, for it was her village in flames, and started towards a young woman carrying a child as she stumbled across the field in front of the forest.

"We must survive," Teyla said, pulling her friend back into the meager shelter and hating the cold practicality in her own voice. "There is nothing we can do."

"Then we shall feed!" The voice from beside her was no longer her friend.

"_Alaran!" Teyla screamed. She tried to run for it, to find other shelter in the midst of this dreadful culling but she felt an inhumanly strong hand clamp down around her arm and hold her in place._

"_Your people are weak, human." Alaran-the-Queen leered at her._

"_My people will fight you," Teyla protested._

"_And they will all die."_

"_No!"_

"_You have nothing to fight us with except your paltry sticks." The Queen sneered. "Do you think this gives us pause?"_

"_We have friends now," Teyla said. "We are no longer alone in this fight."_

"_Where are you precious friends, then? Why have they not come to save you?"_

_Teyla reached down her leg with her free hand and found a knife there. She wasn't accustomed to such a long blade for close-quarters fighting, but Ronon had insisted on teaching her some of the technique. Teyla closed her eyes and remembered "The Princess Bride."_

"_They saved me long ago."_

_The Wraith Queen gagged as the long-bladed knife slid through her stomach and up under her rib cage. With all her strength, Teyla twisted the blade and when her right arm was freed, she used both hands. She released the pommel and stepped back, breathing hard as the Wraith Queen collapsed at her feet._

------

They won the game, of course. It was Homecoming and it was John's senior year. He fought his way through the jubilant crowd, shaking off all his admirers and giving only half a mind to the reminders about where the party was later, looking for the girl he'd forgotten about until this morning.

He found her standing at the base of the stands, alone in a crowd as always. She looked at him and he felt like laughing. Suddenly, football meant less and he was happy anyway.

"Come to the party," he said.

"No John," she answered quickly.

"Ally…"

"I am not going to go stand in a barn and watch you get mobbed by your sycophants."

"They're not sycophants."

"Whatever," she said. "It was a nice game, John. I'm glad you won."

"Please come to the party."

"No."

Thunder rumbled ominously behind them and it began to rain. He pulled her under the bleachers and they watched the water pour down.

"I told you it would rain." she said.

"Yeah," he said, suddenly a million miles away. "You did."

"I should get going."

_John reached out and grabbed her hands. She looked at him in surprise, a puzzled smile on her face._

"_Stay here."_

"_And do what exactly?"_

"_Talk with me. I miss talking with you." John's heart was in his eyes. "Plus, this way you won't get too wet."_

"_It's only water, John. I think I can handle it."_

"_Probably," he admitted._

_He pulled her closer and moved his hands to her shoulders. Her face became very still. Slowly, he moved his right hand to cup her chin, his thumb ghosting across her lips before settling upon her skin. They smelled of rain and victory and Homecoming. Far away, there was a party, but under the high school bleachers John Sheppard kissed Alia Phillips._

------

Ronon picked himself up off the ground and moved his jaw around to test its tenderness. It wasn't broken, but he was going to be eating a lot of jell-o for dinner that evening nonetheless. He arched his neck from side to side and quickly tested his arms and legs for other spots of weakness.

He didn't find any.

Across the training room, his adversary grinned at him.

"You never give up, do you?" she said.

"Nope."

------

She was dying. Horribly and slowly, the life ripped out of her body like the slowest removal of the stickiest band-aid. And there was nothing he could do. She didn't scream or moan, she hadn't been able to speak since shortly after Carson and the med-team arrived. When the nurses moved her or attempted to change her clothing, she gasped at their light touches.

But she cried. Soundless tears streamed from her luminous, fully aware eyes. There was none of the peace found at the end of a person's life, that peace given finally at the end when it becomes inevitable. There was only pain as her body slowly ate itself to death.

And there was nothing he could do.

_Except, of course, there was._

_He had sworn to do no harm. Of all the promises Carson had made in his life, or all the promises he had ever thought of making, this was the one he would die before he betrayed._

_But he wasn't dying. And there was no way his own death could save his patient._

_He sat beside her bed and dimmed the lights. Photosensitivity was one of the more controllable aspects of this disease. If they were on Earth or if they access to more advanced technology, Carson would be inducing comas right and left until he found a way to deal with this. But they weren't on Earth and there was nothing he could do._

_Except, of course, there was._

"_Hello, love," he said quietly. "Are you awake?"_

_She blinked several times in rapid succession._

"_I know you can't speak. But can you hear me?"_

_There was a tiny, painful-looking nod._

"_I've tried everything I can think of. There is nothing I can do that will make you healthy again."_

_Another tiny nod._

"_You've heard us talking," his voice caught. "You know what's going happen, how you're going to die?"_

_Her fingers flexed, almost as if she was reaching for him and she nodded again._

"_I—" he faltered. "I could make it end, lass. You could go to sleep and never wake up again."_

_She closed her eyes and two tears slipped free. He didn't know if they were from the pain or from something else, but when she opened them again, he was struck by the strength he saw in them. This sickness had taken everything from her, everything except her soul._

"_Please." The whispered voice was stricken with pain, but the sentiment was unmistakable._

"_Aye, love." Carson's heart broke. "Give me a moment."_

_He turned away from her and took a deep breath. His hands filled the syringe of their own accord. He turned back and, barely touching her, brushed a kiss upon her forehead._

"_First, do no harm." And the needle slid home._

------

Elizabeth got off the train and looked around her. The signs were all in several different languages and there seemed to two of everything with "blanks" or "nie blanks" written above them and the smell was a great deal more earthy than any other train station she'd ever been in, but it didn't feel too intimidating. She kept all her belongings close to her, as the travel guides had warned and looked around for the family friend who was supposed to pick her up.

Her father had warned her that traffic in Cape Town could be unpredictable and that she might have to wait a bit before her ride arrived. Elizabeth looked around for a bench or some safe-looking place in which to wait and her gaze landed upon a row of pay phones.

She didn't really have a plan, but she found herself dialing home. It rang only once before her father picked it up.

"Elizabeth?" He sounded worried.

"Hi, Dad." She kicked herself. Of course he was panicking. "Everything's okay. Uh…I'm fine."

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Not really, no."

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"I'm in the train station; you were right about the delay." A plan suddenly appeared in her head. "I need you to do something for me."

"Can it wait until morning?"

"Of course, Dad," She laughed. "Would you call the registrar at Brown? I want to change my major."

"To what?"

"Political science." It felt so right. "It's bad here. I want to make it better."

Elizabeth couldn't see, but her father's face lit up in a smile and all of his weariness faded away.

"Sweetheart, you're going to change the world."

------

"Oh…oh this is not good," Rodney mumbled within ten seconds of activating his screen.

"Why not?" Allison asked. "The power is flowing to the generator."

"Which is very nice. Except for the part where it is not flowing out." The surrounding scientists braced themselves for a tirade. "Do you have any idea what this means?"

"Yes, Rodney," Allison replied calmly. "I have helped rig a catastrophic overload before. But two days ago, we couldn't get the power to the generator, and now we can. One step at a time, Rodney."

"Oh. Right." Rodney sat down again, mollified. "One step at a time."

Allison grinned again as the storm blew itself out and the scientists resumed their work on various simulations and calculations.

"We might get this city flying after all."

"_Rodney_?" Zelenka's voice cut in. "_Rodney_!"

"What is it Zelenka? We're a little busy down here."

"_There are four Wraith hive ships on the long range detector_."

"When will they be here?"

"_In fifteen minutes_."

"WHAT?"

"_I am sorry, Rodney. They hid themselves somehow and have only just shown up on our scans_."

"Have they seen us?"

"_I cannot imagine that they haven't_."

"I'll be right there."

The next fifteen minutes passed tensely. Rodney sat in the control room with his finger hovering over the button that would change the cloak to a shield. Elizabeth had insisted that they cloak first, just to see if the Wraith could be turned away. John was in the chair room, ready to attach with their few remaining drones, but nothing was powered up yet to help the City escape detection.

"They have taken up geosynchronous orbit over the city," Zelenka reported.

"Elizabeth, they have to know –"

"They are arming weapons!"

"Switching to shield now!" Rodney announced.

"Sheppard, this is Weir," Elizabeth said into her comm. "You are go for launch."

"They are opening fire!" Radek announced.

The city rocked as the first onslaught of Wraith fire hit them. A few consoles exploded.

"Rodney?" Elizabeth was starting to sound worried. "Should that be happening?"

"_No!" Rodney answered. "Oh my God…they're eating the shield."_

"_What?"_

"_Their weapons. They're specifically attuned to the frequency of our shield. They're sucking the ZPM dry."_

"_How long?"_

"_Ten minutes. Maybe."_

"_Get me city-wide," Elizabeth said. Chuck scrambled to obey. "Everyone, this is Weir. I am declaring a Code Black, repeat Code Black. All non-essential personnel report to the Gate room for immediate evacuation. This is not a drill."_

_The Gate dialed and Elizabeth ordered everyone in the control room to go. Zelenka hesitated, but Rodney pushed him towards the stairs and he went. Elizabeth commed John and told him to retreat and then overrode his protests. The members of the expedition streamed into the Gate room and through the wormhole to safety._

"_Elizabeth, you have to go."_

"_Rodney –"_

"_Go! I'll...rig an overload and be right behind you."_

"_You need my code."_

"_I KNOW YOUR CODE! Please, Elizabeth...just go."_

_She opened her mouth but could think of nothing to say. She ran down the stairs and met John on the lower floor. He looked up and saw Rodney moving from computer to computer and then Elizabeth took his hand and pulled him through the Gate._

_Rodney had finished putting his own codes in and moved on the Elizabeth's before someone else came into the control room._

"_Alison, what are you doing here?"_

"_I—I thought you might need help."_

"_I don't. Get out of here."_

"_Which one are you activating?" Alison's last assignment had been to rig a series of naquadah generators in various places of strategic importance throughout the city._

"_All of them."_

"_Rodney, you can't do that by remote."  
_

"_I did read your report, you know."_

_The city rocked again as the Wraith broke through. Darts whizzed through the air depositing foot soldiers throughout the City._

"_Dr. Sagh," Rodney said, making eye contact "Your idea would have worked. Find another ZPM and save the universe but for now get out of the City."_

"_Yes, sir."_

_He waited until she was halfway across the floor before he activated the self-destruct. There was a screeching sound and the room filled with Wraith. Rodney hit the activation sequence._

_5... _

_4..._

_3..._

_2..._

_1..._

_And then there was nothing but a brilliantly white flash._

_------_

_TBC..._


	8. Chapter Seven

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

Elizabeth stood in an out of the way corner of the infirmary and watched the marines stacking the emergency cots back into their storage containers. Her gaze lingered on her chief of medicine, who sat at his desk with his head in his hands, until Laura Cadman took him by the hand and led him out of the room. Teyla had already disappeared, her expression also indicative of a less than pleasant sleep, but Ronon and John were helping clean up their medically induced slumber party. Rodney, clearly torn between wanting to go through his computer and wanting to stick with his teammates, had sequestered himself at a workstation and had his laptop delivered from his quarters. Radek was helping out, but his gaze often drifted to Dr. Heightmeyer and Elizabeth tried not to wonder what his dream had been about.

"It's all here," Rodney announced. A wave of relief swept through the room. "I am re-establishing main power now."

They had been on emergency back-ups and naquadah generators for so long now that Elizabeth had almost forgotten how much light the City was capable of producing. She heard and felt Atlantis come back to life, humming with power once again. It was a nice thing to hear.

"Dr. Heightmeyer, could I have a word please?" Elizabeth called out, waving the other woman over.

"Yes, Dr. Weir?"

"I wanted to thank you." Elizabeth said. "You had a hard job, but you put it all together."

"I didn't really do anything," Kate said. "I just listened to other people talk."

"I think listening and learning was the point of the exercise."

Kate inclined her head slightly, and turned to walk away. She met Radek's eyes and smiled, blushing slightly. Rodney looked back and forth between them and rolled his eyes. Kate laughed and turned around.

"Oh, Dr. Weir?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"I think you should give everyone who had the dreams a couple of days off. Yourself included."

"I will, Dr. Heightmeyer," Elizabeth said. "Although I really doubt there's any force in the world that could keep those two from their computers are the moment."

Kate grinned archly.

"Maybe just McKay," Elizabeth amended.

"What?"

"Nothing, Rodney," Elizabeth said. "You have three days to write me a report."

"Three days?"

"It can be thorough," said John as he came to stand beside Elizabeth. "We're done here."

"Good," said Elizabeth. "Pass the word about the days off to all department heads and then you're on your own."

"Do you want to run any training seminars?" John asked Ronon as they walked out of the room.

"I think I've had enough fighting for a while."

"I don't think I want to know what you mean," John said. "C'mon, I'll lend you that Johnny Cash CD and you can make fun of it some more."

Elizabeth followed them out of the infirmary, but headed up to the control tower instead of towards crew quarters. Everywhere she looked, she saw signs of the City returning to normal. There was noise again, and the lights no longer flickered. Life had come back to Atlantis and as Elizabeth walked out on to the outdoor balcony off the control room, she offered up a silent _thank you_ just in case anyone was paying attention.

**------**

**Finis**

GravityNotIncluded, February 17, 2007


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